Final Catalog Project

Arabian Oud

Meriam.S Youssef FahmyFerdosArwa

Ahmed Swan

ContentsSummary.........................................................................................................................................................................3

SWOT Analysis..........................................................................................................................................................3

Strengths:...............................................................................................................................................................3

Weaknesses:...........................................................................................................................................................3

Opportunities:.........................................................................................................................................................3

Threats:...................................................................................................................................................................3

Objectives.......................................................................................................................................................................4

Oud Definition................................................................................................................................................................4

Background.....................................................................................................................................................................5

Sprays.....................................................................................................................................................................6

Oil Blends..............................................................................................................................................................6

Pure Oud Oils.........................................................................................................................................................7

Oud.........................................................................................................................................................................7

Other Lines.............................................................................................................................................................7

Target Audience..............................................................................................................................................................8

Geographic:................................................................................................................................................................8

Demographics:............................................................................................................................................................8

Psychographics:..........................................................................................................................................................8

Challenge:.......................................................................................................................................................................8

Strategy-The Big Idea...................................................................................................................................................10

Tactics-Application (Bringing idea to life)...................................................................................................................11

Advertising....................................................................................................................................................................11

Print......................................................................................................................................................................11

Radio....................................................................................................................................................................11

TV........................................................................................................................................................................12

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Digital-Internet and Mobiles................................................................................................................................12

Out-of-home.........................................................................................................................................................12

Direct- mail..........................................................................................................................................................13

Online and offline catalogs...........................................................................................................................................13

Design..................................................................................................................................................................13

Layout..................................................................................................................................................................14

Letter.............................................................................................................................................................................15

Summary

SWOT Analysis(Internal factors)

Strengths:o Brand (name, image, traditional, and natural ingredients)

o Variety of perfumes that satisfies many tastes.

Weaknesses:o Low brand awareness. There are very few people who are aware of the brand name

and the different type of products that it offers.

o No much advertising about the brand and its products.

(External factors)

Opportunities: o Oud is one of the leading businesses in the GCC countries and so local people

consider these types of perfumes (oud) which the brand offers as a cultural tradition

which all Khaleegies follow and are known for.

o Increase interest of Arabic perfumes and culture to all people from all around the

world. This would help in acquiring new first-time buyers (front-end marketing) and

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also helps in converting first-time buyers to second-time buyers (back-end

marketing).

Threats:o Slow distribution because of chemical legislation.

o Unstable supplies of ingredients, materials and products.

o Other competitors are growing highly in the market and so competition increases.

Thus, differentiation is needed in order to have high positioning in people’s minds.

ObjectivesOur main objective is to create more brand awareness among all consumers who buy

Arabic perfumes and those who would like to try them. Thus, we want to position ourselves to

the top of people’s minds (TOMA). Also, our objective is to promote brand loyalty to the brand’s

products so that at least 10% of the target demographics become repeat buyers. This would

create a bond with customers which could help in acquiring first time buyers and later convert

them to second time buyers and so achieve brand loyalty. Furthermore, we want to deliver the

best shopping experience for customers, where the marketing research studies showed that the

company serves different categories of customers but still there’s a category that has no time to

go out for shopping.

Oud Definition Oud is an Arabic type of perfume. Oud actually comes from trees found in India,

Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam and elsewhere in the South Asia region.  It is said that these trees

will usually have some type of a fungal infection and the chips from pieces of those trees are

ultimately made into Oud. 

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 Oud is available in chips which are lit and burned as incense or made into a liquid form

and sold as bottled perfume oil. However, Oud is also available in an oil form as a perfume

which women usually wear. 

BackgroundFrom a modest beginning in 1982, Abdul - Aziz Al Jasser started a small shop selling

fragrant Oud oils in the old souk of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. His talent for

blending oriental perfume scents attracted customers from across the country and his

passion for mixing natural oils made him travel the world to source the finest essential oils &

flowers. Demand grew and so did the company.

Chairman’s Message

By offering attentive customer service, variety and value, the customer is the

focus of our operations. Our ability to continuously adapt to trends in the

market shall ensure that we keep our promise in delivering added value to our

stakeholders at all times. Our people, through dedication and commitment to

our values vis-à-vis business ethics, are the pillar for our continued growth.

With over 25 years of expertise in producing authentic fragrances, Arabian Oud has

emerged as the largest perfume retailer in the world. During 2006, the company managed a retail

chain of 480 privately owned perfumed stores, and by 2009, they had a retail chain of 550

privately owned perfume stores around the world. In the Middle East, the tradition of Oud

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perfume is a multibillion-dollar industry. The international market is now catching on. Our stores

in London, Paris, Kuala-lumber and Dubai continue to receive shoppers from across the globe.

Arabian Oud is said to deliver strong and subtle exquisite scents in elaborately designed

cases for its customers; they deliver this in either oud oil or in a perfume. Also, they sell oud

burners to burn the oud that they sell which are also very elaborate and beautiful. In addition,

their staff employees tend to be welcoming, polite, kind while not being at all overbearing,

unlike other stores. This shows clearly how professional they are and thus this helps

attract customers to the brand.

Their stores are of a fairly medium to large size that holds all their scents, once you enter

the store you can subtly smell the oud that they have burned that day as the smell will last

extremely long. Their scents are delivered in very big cases which have been specially designed

to match the format and the history behind the scent. While all the smells may not be to

everyone’s taste, there are certainly a variety of scents that one should find that they absolutely

adore, as that what Arabian Oud continues to create, scents that people love, talk about and

continuously purchase in batches because they cannot stand to lose them. You can have your

own favorite scent from here as well as the new scents that are completely added to the store.

Other than the Arabian Oud retail shops, they have an Arabian Oud Palace. This palace is

a luxury boutique for Arabian Oud. It features limited-edition perfume of the finest world oils.

Arabian Oud Palace will be featured in high-end developments, luxury hotels and resorts and

city landmarks. Planned as a boutique, a special décor will be customized to suit every location.

Premium blends of the finest oils matured over the years differentiate Arabian Oud Palace.

Exotic arabesque bottles are used to define the deep long-lasting woody fragrances.

Fragrance Gallery

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Sprayso Scents inspired by ancient rituals yet for a modern lifestyle. Eau-de-

Perfume presented in bottles with universal appeal.

Oil Blendso Fine Oud essence blended with natural essential oils and exotic flowers. Ethnic

handcrafted bottles contain carefully blended oriental perfumes with lasting

aromas.

Pure Oud Oilso Deep woody scent for a first impression. A single drop generates an exquisite

aroma lasting hours and days. This pure oil is a precious possession for both

ladies and gentlemen.

Oudo Incense from burning Oud can be used for:

Home Fragrance

Special occasions, weddings, receptions etc.

Your clothing fragrance

o Premium Oud can cost from $5,000-$20,000/kg.

Other Lineso Body Creams in essential oils and flowers.

These all have several categories:

Spray Perfumes

Traditional Perfumes

Incense Perfumes

Classical oil Persfumes

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Also, buyers have the option of personalizing their own perfume by adding different

ingredients.

Target Audience

Geographic: All consumers in the GCC countries.

Demographics: Males and females in the gulf region, 18+ years old.

High social class and upper middle class.

Psychographics: Those who cherish Arabic perfumes and oud.

Well educated consumers.

Consumers who care about the quality of oud and perfumes. Thus care about their status.

Those who follow the cultural trends.

Challenge:

The first challenge that Arabian Oud is faced with is the fact that despite a rich history and

quality unique products they have low brand awareness in a potentially highly lucrative market;

the Middle East. Despite a successful expansion into the global market, the GCC, classified as

the local market, remains the market with the highest demand. This holds true when taking all

market segments in consideration, and is a result of how the perfume lines have been

successfully embedded in the market through advertising and positive word of mouth. In order

to take full advantage of the market potential, Arabian Oud needs to concentrate on increasing

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their brand awareness. In GCC markets where the customers generally share a rich culture of

traditional scents and oils that the brand builds upon, this is less true than in the more diverse

markets such as the United Kingdom or France. Arabian Oud’s offerings are distinctly Middle

Eastern and can be completely novel to a majority of the European customers, thereby creating

the need to inform them about the intricacies of this traditional treasure. By giving customers

factual information on the properties of their products, the buying decision can be greatly

affected. For example, the essence of Bakhoor and Oud can last for more than 10 hours

depending on the quality of the ingredients, quite a selling point when you compare it to designer

scents on the market. Another point that must be emphasized to the consumers is that Arabian

Oud has much more to offer than Oud and Bakhoor, they offer a variety of sensuous products

such as body sprays, creams, and blended oils.

The second challenge is, an increased perceived differentiation of their products is needed in

the minds of their consumers instead of through product innovation, as this will help generate

increased sales. When it comes to looking and smelling good, GCC residents seem more than

willing than most to loosen their purse strings, a benefit that should be fully utilized. With the

consumption of cosmetics and fragrances in the GCC being one of the highest per capital in the

world, there is an enormous market for high quality products such as those offered by Arabian

Oud. This cultural predisposition to high use of fragrances and cosmetics is accompanied by a

12.5% annual increase in the purchase of beauty products in the UAE, accounting for a 30%

expansion in beauty and perfume retail space in the past three years. According to Gulf Beauty

Expo (as reported by Schmid, 2005), the money spent by GCC residents on beauty products in

2005 alone exceeded US$2.1 billion. Due to many competitive shops Such as “Ajmal” and

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“Abdul Samad Al Qurashi” that competes to offer unique products to many Arabian Oud lovers,

Arabian Oud must formulate a strategy in which they differentiate themselves in price.

Strategy-The Big Idea

For Arabian Oud to have high brand awareness and to differentiate themselves from other

competitors, they should follow a specific creative strategy.

Although Arabian Oud is considered to be a huge brand that has its unique style, not

many people are aware of it and the products it offers. Thus, we want to re-inform our target

audience about our brand and its products and convince them by showing them the benefits they

could get from buying our products. However, those who are familiar with the brand are targeted

to convert them to loyal customers. This could be done in several ways: First, we must increase

the number of advertisements on different media (Print, TV, Radio, OOH, Online), through

which the target audience get exposed to. This could help in increasing brand and product

awareness. Also, we can send direct mails using databases, to the target audience showing them

our product offerings. This would help in creating a direct link between the brand and the

customers and would position the brand at a high point in people’s minds. Second, an online

catalog on our website through which customers could log on, view the different products and

have a sense of cozy emotion, would encourage customers to visit our stores, or buy our products

online. Thus evoking their interest in wanting to visit the stores and view our products. Finally,

giving special offers to customers would persuade them to buy our products. Such offers could

include free gifts when buying any product from our stores, for example: free lady necklaces

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with the same perfume color, free samples of other types of perfumes or free personalized

perfume samples.

Customers will respond easily as we will be providing all the detailed information to contact us,

if any extra information is needed, on the website, offline catalog, on ads and on direct mails.

Tactics-Application (Bringing idea to life)

AdvertisingIncrease in advertising through different channels would help us increase brand

awareness.

Print

News PapersNewspapers are considered to be a prestigious media vehicle, thus we could place ads

within specific sections of the Newspaper like fashion, entertainment and tabloid.

MagazinesSince we are targeting a particular audience with our product, magazines are effective and

important for creating awareness. Magazines have been used frequently by our competitors’; the

high use of magazines reflects the domination of the print media. Many readers seek new

information and look for new products in magazines because they have high readership and are

more effective in the sense that they are updated and printed on weekly or monthly basis. We

chose magazines because they have special audience opportunities; they are long lasting for

audience so they can keep it for as long as they wish hence, they could be exposed to the ad more

than once every time they read the magazine. Furthermore, magazines have a high pass long rate,

because audiences “pass along” the magazine to someone else when they are done with it.

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RadioRadio is and has always been one of the premiere engagement platforms available in

commercial media. People can engage with their radio stations through numerous portals –

cell phones, text messages, websites, phones, faxes, public events and more. Radio talk

shows and commercials are active 24/7, with constant fresh content. When radio speaks,

people react. Also, it is a universal medium enjoyed by people at one time or another during

the day, in the car, at work, and even at home. We chose radio because it is cost-

efficient and thus it gives us the opportunity to advertise frequently and have more

spots.

TVIt is a medium which has a personal impact on our audience because it is a story telling

medium and uses both visual aids and sound as opposed to just one of those aspects. The

television is also a flexible medium because it allows the usage of advertisements at any time of

the day. In addition to that it permits control of how long the advertisements are, where they’re

placed, and what content should be used.

Digital-Internet and MobilesWe will be using Internet advertisements on social network websites such as Facebook

and Twitter. Internet advertising and interactive advertisements, will allow us to keep track of

number of impressions and website visits, on the whole keeping track of the effectiveness of the

advertisement. Internet advertisements can also help in cutting costs. We will bid advertisements

on Google on a performance basis, which means we will only be charged once visitors click on

the advertisement (CPC). This technique is very cost efficient and highly targeted. One more

advantage of the internet is that it creates a global environment and makes connections with

others easier. Internet ads could be accessed by people in different regions.

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Out-of-homeOOH is one of the media strategies that would be very significant to our target audience.

OOH is characterized by its high frequency and repetition. It can also appeal to the audience due

to the visual impacts including creative designs, attention-grabbing formats and colors that

would grab our target's attention.

Direct- mailThis would be based on the list of databases, in which direct mails could be sent to the

audiences and containing a catalog that includes all types of products and all the information that

the customers need in order to respond back and buy our products.

Online and offline catalogs

Design

Our catalog is designed in a specific style that would attract customer’s attention and

would capture people’s interests. Our catalogs design is differentiated from others’ by the new

design of having the “bukhoor” smoke on each page of the catalog. This is relevant to our logo

which is the “mabkhara”, which is actually the “bukhoor” burner. This gives consumers a sense

of what we are actually providing them. Also, on the cover page of the catalog there is real wood

incense sticking to it. This wood incense has a swift, strong smell which would give customers a

feeling of the smell of our perfumes. As a result, we differentiate ourselves from others,

emphasizing on the importance of customer satisfaction to us.

The color we used in our catalog is “Maroon” which is a combination of both red and

brown. Red symbolizes warmth and high level of energy perceived. It draws people’s attention

and let them focus more on the products and its information.

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How the color red affects us mentally and physically

* Increases enthusiasm

* Stimulates energy

* Encourages action and confidence

* A sense of protection from fears and anxiety

Brown symbolizes a luxurious cultural style. It represents stability, reliability, and

approachability. It is the color of our earth and is associated with all things natural or

organic.

How the color brown affects us physically and mentally

* Feeling of wholesomeness

* Stability

* Connection with the earth

* Offers a sense orderliness

LayoutThe catalog’s layout is set in way to make it easy and interesting for readers to read. Thus

link them with the brand and its products. Also, under each category of perfumes we provided

the information of each perfume and its ingredients that it contain, in addition to the product

details which are the prices of each perfume. This allows the customer to have a little idea about

the kind of products we offer and an idea of our prices and the offers we handle.

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Letter Dear Valued Customer,

Arabian Oud is a business that specializes in different types of authentic fragrances and it is considered to be the leading oriental perfume chain in the world. We offer attentive customer service, variety and value, the customer is the focus of our operations. We guarantee our consumers to constantly keep our promise in delivering added value to our products. We work to address and meet your needs.

Arabian Oud offers consumers the option of customizing their personal favorite scents. We provide you with unique ingredients you will need to choose from in order to create your own personal and favorite scent. Our sales assistants at the store are well experienced and offer prestige, luxury, cost efficient to meet our valued customer expectations.

Arabian Oud proudly offers you dear client a luxury collection of sprays, Traditional perfumes, classic oud and oil blends.

For more information, contact us via phone/email or check our online catalog.

Email: ad@adgroup.ae

Website: www.wix.com/eyedea/eyedea1

P.S –free test samples and discounts are always available at our stores.

Regards

Arabian Oud Staff

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